Mariella Mehr

Mehr was born on 26 December 1947[1] (or 27 December 1947[2]) in Zürich a member of the itinerant Yeniche people.[1] She was affected by the program Kinder der Landstrasse, an organisation trying to assimilate children by separating them from their families traveling the country roads.[3][4] [5] Mehr was taken away from her mother at a young age and lived in orphanages and with foster parents.[1] She was moved between 16 orphanages and three reformatories as a child, attending three schools.[6] She made money as a factory worker. She became pregnant at age 18. After giving birth, her son was taken away. She was held at Hindelbank women's prison for 19 months and forcibly sterilised.[6]

From 1974, Mehr wrote several articles, criticising the racism of Kinder der Landstrasse.[7][3] She published her first literary work in 1975. Her first novel, Steinzeit (Stone Age), with autobiographical elements, appeared in 1981.[3][7] Returning topics of her books are the causes of outsiders and oppressed minorities.[3][4]

The title of her 1986 play Akte M. Xenos ill.* 1947 – Akte C. Xenos ill.* 1966 is the title of her dossier at Kinder der Landstrasse.[3] It premiered at the Theater 1230 in Berne in 1986. Strong reactions were documented in its 1987 book publication as a documentary, Kinder der Landstrasse. Ein Hilfswerk, ein Theater und die Folgen (Children of the Country Road: A Charity, a Theatre and the Consequences).[8] Her drama Silvia Z. was motivated by the 1980 youth riots in Zürich.[8] It premiered the same year at the Stadttheater Chur. Another 1986 drama, Anni B., is focused on a woman who fought as a member of the International Brigades in Spain and was placed in a mental institution when she returned to Switzerland.[8] It was performed at the Theaterhaus Gessnerallee in Zürich in 1991, but without the author's consent who thought that her text had been changed too much.[9]

Mehr lived in Tuscany since 1996.[7] In 2000, she resigned from the authors' club Gruppe Olten, because the group removed the goal of realising a democratic socialist society from its mission statement. She was a founding member of the International Romani Writers' Association (IRWA) in 2002, and served as its vice president for some time.[10]

She returned to Switzerland in 2015, settling in Zürich.[11] She died in the Entlisberg nursing home in Zürich on 5 September 2022 at age 74.[3]

Mehr was awarded the literary prize of the Kanton Zürich, and the literary prize of Berne in both 1983 and 1987.[1] In 1988, Mehr received the Ida Somazzi Prize for her engagement in the interests of women.[1][13] She was awarded the prize of the Swiss Schillerstiftung in 1996.[1]

Mehr's literary and social work was recognized in 1998 with an honorary doctorate from the University of Basel.[1][4] In 2012, she was the first recipient of the ProLitteris award for a literary life's work.[14][4] She was awarded the Bündner Literaturpreis in 2016.[15]

• Benita Cantieni: Mariella Mehr. In: Schweizer Schriftsteller persönlich, pp. 222–237; 260. Huber, Frauenfeld 1983.
• Bernhard C. Schär: Nackte Ohnmacht, verletzte Körper und unverhüllte Kritik: Mariella Mehr. In: Bern 68. Lokalgeschichte eines globalen Aufbruchs – Ereignisse und Erinnerungen, pp. 192–196. Hier + jetzt, Zürich 2008, ISBN 978-3-03919-078-2.